Architecture Monday

August 1, 2016

Tonight we head to Singapore to see a house designed by Aamer Architects.

There’s some nice juxtapositions going on here that I really enjoy. Most strikingly is the way the concrete shell – which delightfully takes on the basic form of a cartoon image of a house – is sliced away to be replaced by the delicate and warmly coloured wood screen. The house itself then slides on behind the screen, opening up to light, views, and breeze. The asymmetry of the house is also enticing, making for a dynamic composition that draws the eye. By using the space under the pitched roof, there are three levels to the house while looking more like two. And that triangular skylight embedded in the concrete shell.

click for project info

Inside the effect’s even more grand. The screens, the framed views, sometimes concrete, sometimes not, all reads. It’s very expressive, the rooms feel alive. And there are so many nifty little touches – like the bookshelves being like screens in the window, a rock garden off the master bedroom, or a glassed-in planter that terminates a built in desk that itself forms a railing to the living room… all with lots of light and taking advantage of the local climate.

There are a few places that feel a bit disjointed and unresolved, but overall I really like the basic idea and how it’s been done. It’s a clear and simple concept used to generate nice space.